Letter: Birth control is free, it’s called abstinence

Birth control is free, it’s called abstinence

Because it was narrow-minded, Froma Harrop’s column on access to birth control and the conclusion that we have to assure that those who want it can get it was equally a waste of time for readers as it was a waste of paper by printing it.

Like her, I believe that all women should have equal access to birth control regardless of education level and/or economic class. But don’t they already – or is it only the educated and the rich who can grasp the understanding of abstinence? Perhaps Harrop failed to mention this avenue because she finds it to be unrealistic. Fine, but to write that the opposite to abstaining is somehow virtuous is very troubling.

Meanwhile, not much ink needs to be spilled over explaining the cost to abstain because everyone already knows it doesn’t cost a dime. So then, what is the real issue here: birth control or self control?

Give me a break with the so-called issue of the availability to birth control. The biggest obstacle that gets in our way and stops us every time is ourselves – not others, or events, circumstance, and the world around us. Isn’t it time that we accept responsibility and accountability? And wouldn’t then the application of prudence and temperance be the real virtues here?

Until she is prepared to present the entire story, Harrop should never again write on this subject. Meanwhile, her regard for the well-being of others is noble, yet her neglecting to mention abstinence or to include how natural family planning is also already widely available, likewise free, and a very effective means to control births is as one-sided and careless as it is astonishing.